Burt Steele Bomb!!

In a Burt Steele thread, no less.

 

Sabonis is a 3 level scorer and he's improving. All Sengun has to do is improve his outside shot and Reed/Sengun will be a force in pick and roll, pick and pop.

 

Cheke64. Will you settle this for us? I say sarcasm.

 

If your goal is to be a contender, sabonis has no value. I would say with his contract he’s a negative asset, and the kings are completely hopeless. They have no path to contention

 

I wouldn't trade Sengun for Sabonis even if they attached draft picks to Sabonis
Sabonis is at his ceiling and will be declining; he is not a cornerstone
We haven't seen Sengun's ceiling yet.

 

I think Sabonis is an underrated player, but I basically agree with this. Maybe there is some magic number of picks where I'd pull the trigger and just assume "okay now I have enough assets to go get whatever I need to build a contender", but it would take a massive haul, the kind they'd never be willing to give up.

 

I agree with this. Sabonis is a better rebounder and has more range, but there's not a huge separation between the two right now and Sabonis is going into his 10th rather than 4th season. I think they're similar with slightly different skill sets, but I struggle to imagine a future where Alpi hasn't become a more impactful scorer. Sabonis has only averaged over 20 in 1 season in his career, I think Alpi's gonna do more than that by some margin.

 

Of course other teams are going to make offers for up and coming players. We don’t have to say yes to them. Sadly they are asking about Jaylen Green. I am almost certain they call for others besides Sengun, too. We are starting to become more than just a younger team, we have better than average talent at every position. Other GMs are trying to shop us to make their teams better. If they offer us something we can’t refuse then a trade will happen. Know that not everyone and probably nobody will retire a Rocket -> Hakeem Olajuwon didn’t retire in Rocket red.

 

Is Sabonis a 3 level scorer?

I see the Kings as an upland coming team.

The Celtics have KP and I see Sabonis in that light, except he's younger and healthier.

 

You think Sabonis is on the same level w/ Jokic and Steph?

 

no sabonis is not remotely a 3 level scorer. Have you watched him in the playoffs? he gets guarded like westbrook basically, nobody cares if he shoots a shot outside of 5 feet. I know his 3 point % looks pretty, but he takes 1 a game so he's basically a nonshooter. The kings are one of the most hopeless franchises in the nba, if your goal is title contention. Ya, you can be a fringe playoff team with him but that's about it.

Porzingas shoots 6 times the amount of 3s as sabonis, that's a super weird comparison outside of them both being euros

 

Yes we have, his name is Sabonis!!

They are the same size, same length, both good passers, and initially could only score around the basket. Sabonis developed more offensively, as he got older, to where he can hit the 3pt shot at a decent clip. Which is where I see Sengun developing.

However, that's why I think OKC and Indy traded Sabonis because, although they are good, they are limited. And I think Sac is finding that out as well. You can not go far in the playoffs with that type of player in the middle.

So the question becomes, do you give a max extension to a player who is limited?

 

You can’t help yourself. In no way is Sabonis his ceiling, he’s already as good as Sabonis and nowhere near his peak

 

Sabonis is an equally good passer as Sengun, a better scorer, being that he can hit a 3pt shot more consistently, and Sabonis is a better rebounder....ALL FACTS

 

Sabonis basically doesn't take threes my dude--he effectively isn't even a 3P shooter at all, and teams guard him that way. You can't just look at the percentages.

Sengun shoots them twice as often per possession.

I would agree Sabonis is currently a (slightly) better scorer and rebounder than Sengun, but it's already close, and Sabonis is in his peak, prime playing years, while Sengun is still just getting started.

 

Its interesting

 

I know I've told you this before, and you always ignore it, but Sabonis is in year 9 and Sengun is in year 4. Sabonis has also plateaued and Sengun is still on the rise. If Sengun is never a better player than he was in 2023-24, then yeah, it is obviously the wrong decision to stick with Sengun. If we somehow knew he was not going to improve at all, then we would obviously trade him. But pretty much everyone besides you expects Sengun to improve substantially. I'm pretty confident saying Sengun will be a much better scorer and passer than Sabonis ever will. And just a much better player in general.

 

Especially that last part about the Rockets building up for something big with all their latest moves. Including the recent Jeff Green move.